Ivy Bridge / Z77 Platform - 16GB Ram Dual/Quad clarification

Devious · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:22

My home Pc is still 775 platform so am a newb on Sandy/Ivy bridge and all things DDR3.

Im speccing up a new CAD PC for work and want to use 16GB of ram.

Im thinking of using a GA-Z77-D3H motherboard and the spec says it uses Dual channel memory.

Can someone clarify what my option are for 16GB.

Do I need 2 x 8GB dual, 4 x 4 GB Dual or 4 x 4GB quad channel. Not sure what the difference is between the latter two but some ram is sold as that.

One more thing, If I was to do a simple overclock with a 3570K to 4-4.2 Ghz does having 4 x 4GB make it any harder to achieve over 2 x 8GB. And also would getting DDR3 1833/ 1600 over 1333 make it any easier to make stable?

Cheers

VaderDSL · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:25

2 sets of 2X4Gb would be fine, you'll have dual channel with all 4 slots filled (2/2)

Devious · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:35

What is quad channel used for then, is that just for X79 platform?

VaderDSL · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:43

Devious said:
What is quad channel used for then, is that just for X79 platform?

yup they have 2 banks of 4 slots iirc (although I see some boards have 4 banks of 1 slot?) whereas z77 has 2 banks of 2 slots.

Subliminal Aura · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:45

What graphics card did you have in mind ?

Devious · 18 Jun 2012 at 20:55

Subliminal Aura said:
What graphics card did you have in mind ?

Now thats the million $$ question.

As a company we are moving onto new software. Tekla Structures . It used openGL but Its hard to find out exactly whether the superior drivers on Quadro/FireGL card is any extra benefit over the extra grunt on an equally priced mainstream card. We are on a budget so will be looking in thw £200-300 range for graphics.